Council split over new Deputy

‘Clover Moore Team’ Councillor Marcelle Hoff beat team colleague Cr Di Tornai in a five-all tiebreaker when her name was drawn from a barrel at Council on Monday.

Cr Hoff says she is not worried that Lord Mayor Clover Moore voted against her.

“If I allowed things like that to worry me, I guess I wouldn’t be particularly effective,” she said.

Cr John McInerney voted for Cr Hoff, contradicting his fellow ‘Clover Moore Team’ councillors, aligning with Greens and Liberal councillors to support Cr Hoff.

In May, Councillors Hoff and McInerney created ‘Friends of Barangaroo’, protesting overdevelopment.

The Lord Mayor later ordered McInerney to retract allegedly slanderous comments during a criticism of her position on the board of Barangaroo.

Cr McInerney’s views on the issue had “alienated him a little bit” within the Lord Mayor’s team, says Greens Councillor Irene Doutney.

Other councillors have noted an increasing divergence between Lord Mayor’s votes and some of her five team-members’.

“I sense there’s some concern around consultation from the Lord Mayor’s officers with some of the councillors,” Liberal Cr Shayne Mallard said.

Cr Doutney said she first noticed Cr Hoff opposing the Lord Mayor on the controversial paving of Orphan School Creek last year.

“She’s pretty much stood up for what she believes in since then… but I think the real breaker is Barangaroo.

“It makes life a lot more interesting for our side of the table, because it means we get more honest votes instead of just voting as dictated by the Lord Mayor.

“It won’t be the bloc it was when I first joined Council at the beginning of the term,” she said.

Cr Doutney says outgoing Deputy Lord Mayor Phillip Black didn’t seek re-nomination for fear of over-commitment.

Cr Hoff says she had decided to be a candidate only a week before her victory and had no idea who would support her.

“A couple of Councillors asked me if I would run and I had thought that I wouldn’t,” she said.

In her second time in the 12-month role of Deputy, she wants to continue her focus on community engagement and scaling down Barangaroo.

“I will do everything I feel I must in order to achieve appropriate outcomes on Barangaroo,” she said.

Cr McInerney was unavailable for comment on the Deputy Lord Mayor’s election, having gone overseas the following day.

By Lawrence Bull